X’s Coming Audio and Video Calling Options are More likely to be Exclusive to X Premium Subscribers

I doubt that this might be any surprise to anybody that’s been being attentive to X’s push towards paying subscriptions over the past yr. But in line with a brand new report from TechCrunch, X’s upcoming audio and video calling features, to be built into X DMs, might be an X Premium feature only, meaning that you just’ll should pay to make use of either option within the app.

As you may see in this instance, X’s soon-to-be-released audio and video calling options might be accessible via your inbox, enabling you to quickly connect with people via the app.

X has shared various details on the approaching additions, including at its Client Council meeting last week. However it hasn’t yet confirmed whether it’s going to be available to everyone, or only to paying users.

Now, detail within the back-end code of the app seems to verify this, with lines noting that “audio and video calls are a premium feature”, that are related to error messages that non-subscribers will likely get if they struggle to make a call within the app.

Which, again, is not any surprise. The X team has been attempting to add more enticements for people to take up X Premium subscriptions, within the hopes of each expanding its revenue potential, while also combating bots and spam within the app. X owner Elon Musk recently noted that pushing users towards paid subscriptions is “the one way I can consider to combat vast armies of bots”, as getting more users to pay, even when it’s only a small amount per 30 days, will make it rather more expensive for bot farms to operate.

The issue with that’s that it requires mass take-up to be effective. To be able to make this a disincentive for bot peddlers, the overwhelming majority of X users would must be verified, which might then mean that almost all non-paying, non-verified accounts are likely bots.

But so far, lower than 0.5% of X users have signed on to this system, so it has a strategy to go to make this effective on this sense.

Musk has also said that X will soon add one other, cheaper payment tier for its verification program, which could prompt more sign-ups, while speculation stays that Musk could eventually force all users to pay for X access at some stage.

That might likely be a dangerous move, especially at such low rates of take-up for this system at this stage. But perhaps, if X can sweeten the deal, and persuade more people to pay to make use of the app, it could still turn out to be a viable anti-bot measure, and a full pay gate pathway for the app at some stage.

Possibly, adding audio and video calls will assist in this respect, though people have gotten by without these features within the app so far, so it’s not more likely to be a vital offering by any means.

But at the identical time, X must try more things. And given no one else has solved the social platform bot problem, who’s to say, I assume, that Elon’s not right, and that this isn’t the strategy to go on this front.